Hunter Navi
by Gatecrasher12
Summary: Author's Note: read inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't any of it so don't bug me!**

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Brown eyes fluttered opened slowly, wincing at the light that poured into them after a long time of no usage. Lan woke up feeling extremly stiff, as if he hadn't moved any part of his body in many months. He also felt a bit numb, very cold, and a little wet. Not a good combination. Looking around the tiny space he found himself in was lit dimly with red light, he could see several tubes and tiny wires connected to his body, several on his forhead. There was a glass lid overhead and over that was an apperimently very thick steel lid.

Lan sighed a little, the brunette flexed his fingers experimentally and heard several cracks from his knuckles, he smirked at the sensation the little action left.

"At lest I'm getting feeling back." Lan cringed as his hand came up to rub his sore throat. He voice sounded harsh, hoarse, and dry when he spoke.

The movement was enough to set off a chain reaction. Lan neary jumped out of his skin when there was a sudden series of high pitch beeping. The dull red light was quickly replaced by bright green. There was a low clicking of locks being released followed by a hissing sound of pressurized air being released. Above the protective metal lid had split in two, sliding open from both sides and the glass above swung open like a door.

Lan reached up to the sides of his capsule and pulled himself up into a sitting position, pulling wires and tube off and out of his body at the same time, all the while his joints popped and cracked with each movement. He groaned as he worked the stiffness from his neck.

The young Hikari scanned his surroundings as the lights flickered on one by one, some continued to flicker while otheres didn't come on at all. He was in a dust covered room, a lab really if the giant flashing computers, the long metal work tables, and the many tech gizmos and gadgets were any indication, that looked like it hadn't be used in years.

The young NetSaver instantly became very wary as he went over some memories. Lan frowned when he came up with fuzzy pictures of faces and events and fragmented voices not his own.

_**"... ... It's been a while hasn't it, Lan? Well, maybe not as long for you as it was for me. Time must have flown for you, unlike me. ... As you can see, I've aged quite a bit... and you haven't. I wonder if you can even recognize my voice? **_"

Lan nearly fell out of his capsule at the new unexpected voice. Looking up, the boy saw a transparent man. _'A hologram' _was his immediate thought. The hologram was tall wearing a long lab coat. He looked somewhere in his late fourties with thin grey streaks in his short brown hair. Tired matching brown eyes stared unseeing ahead behind a pair of thin specticals was perched on the bridge of his nose. The man smiled warmly, lovingly, albeit sadly at thin air.

That smile.

It was familiar and made something click in Lan's head. "Papa!" he exclaimed.

Lan got out of his capsule, his legs wobbled when he stood. The boy stumbled clumsily as he slowly approached the recording, shivering when he felt a draft touch damp naked skin, he finally noticed he was clad in nothing but a pair of spandex shorts. Well, at least he wasn't stark naked or anything like that.

Lan wrapped his arms around himself as he eyed the radical changes of his father's image. Last he remembered his father, Yuichiro Hikari, was a youthful man in his late twenties-early thirties, not this middle aged man entering his senior years. He couldn't have been asleep all _that_ long, could he?

The hologram of Dr. Hikari continued to speak, "_**... It's me, your father. If you're seeing this recording, it means you've just woken up from a long suspended animetion and you maybe a bit disoriented, dont worry about it, that's natural, it'll wear off. I wish I could have been there to see in person, but that's impossible now.**_" The man sighed sadly. Lan's suddenly felt something sinking inside him. "_**... If you're hearing this then it also means that chances are good that I am no longer alive and have passed on into death.**_"

Lan's eyes widened. The information hit the boy like a speeding freight train. "You can't be dead, papa... This can't be!"

"_**I know this must be hard to take and that you might be angry with me, I wouldn't blame you if you were, I expect to be upset really, I'm upset with myself too. Please forgive me.**_" Yuichiro said with appologetic bow. Lan's heart had been shattered by the news, sure, but by no means had he felt any contempt towards his father. "_**If you don't remember I'll tell you why you were frozen. It happened during a routine inspection mission you, Magaman, Chade, and Protoman, if you can remember them, were sent on by the Commissioner of the NetSavers to investigate strange fluctuations in the city power plant's security system. **_

"_**You guys were ambushed by group of Darkloids. You and Chade Cross Fused with Megaman and Protman and fought them. You two beat them but you suffered a serious, life threatening blow, the doctors said you had little or no chance of survival. I couldn't just sit there and watch you die so I placed you in a cryogenic sleep. Lan, you are in one of many of the NetSaver's secret bases. This one is deep under a mountain. The machines you see around your sleep capsule are, were, your life support system to help you heal and keep your body in it's proper working form, if you were wondering about them.**_"

Lan held his head as his father told him all this. Blurry images begain to focus as memories rushed back to him to fill in what ever gaps there were in his father's story. "Oh, papa... why? Why'd it have to be this way?" Lan's eyes began to sting with tears. Everyone he knew was likely all gone and buried. He was... alone now.

_**"Next to this terminal you find a machine that has your new PET in it. Mind, I have upgraded both Megaman and your PET. Now you no longer need to preload any Battle Chips before preforming a Crossfusion. Just call out the name of the chip you need and you'll get it. But this ability is only accessible while in your fussed state. Soul Chips, however, will still need to be preloaded if you want to use them. Also, with the new PET you'll find a special little device I cooked up that will help make it possible to Crossfuse with Megaman anywhere. Keep it on you always.**_

"_**Lan, listen to me. I have no idea what the world outside this lab may be like, nor do I know how things ended... if they ended. I would have taken you out of your sleep sooner, but you and Megaman in particular were still in danger so I decided to keep you asleep a little longer. The Darkloids had grown far more vicious in their attacks. It's gotten to the point where we've lost Scilabs' main facility. They were targeting all important NetSavers and anyone who could Cross Fuse. As a result, the Commissioner has deemed it necessary that all personel and their NetNavis who could use the Syncro Chip to go into hidding. This means, son, you aren't the only one we've frozen. We scattered them all over so they can't easily be found.**_"

"So I'm not alone." The weight of the situation seemed to have gotten a little lighter on his shoulers now.

_**"One thing is for certain, Dr. Wily has something to do with what's been going on. He's been abducting strong NetNavis off the net and turning them into his loyal robots. The Darkloids are becoming stronger, Lan, they're no longer the Navis we're use to fighting. Wily calls them Robot Masters. They've all but declared war against everyone. We've been building our own robotic army to figh t them so you don't have to worry too much...**_"

Lan frowned. So now Wily wanted to play war.

"_**From some files my father, your grangfather, Thomas Hikari ( Light ), left behind, it appears Megaman was never intended to be a NetNavi in the first place, he was supposed to be the first free willed android. Father did build him, but felt the world wasn't quite ready to have him yet, so he never woke him up. Father called him Megaman X. Your brother's Navi design was built based off the original Megaman's programing. This would make the two of them brothers and you could be X half-brother... in an odd, confusing way.**__"_

_'Oookay,'_ Lan found that a little weird. First he had a big twin brother who was turned into a Navi, now he might have another big half-brother, only now he was a robot. _'My family is officially the weirdest family ever.'_

_"__**... If X is up and about it would be a good idea to find him and stick with him. If he's not then you might have to wake him yourselves. I uploaded X's last known location and information on him into your PET, just tell Megaman to load 'Project X' into his search drive and he'll have the file you need.**_

Lan's frown deepened but nodded to all this. A war had been going on while he was laid up on his backside. His family was gone. His friends, some of them anyway, were also out cold in other labs somewhere else. There was also another, original, Megaman somewhere in the world and he had to find him. And for all he knew the world could have gone strait to Hell! Lan now had a new resolve. He had to find his friends and fight the Darkl- no, the Robot Masters.

The hologram of Dr. Hikari sighed, drawing his son's attention. "_**I hope however, that the world you are now in isn't as bleak as this one. After this recording ends, you might want to find some clothes. Walk out the lab and go down the hall to you left then take a right. Keep walking until you reach the end. There should be a staircase there, go up a level and three doors down on the left is a locker room. Your clothes, some supplies, and a map with the locations of the others are in the one with you name on it. ... Lan, I want you to know that your mother and I love you and we miss you and Magaman so much. I'm proud to have you as my son. Take care of yourself, my boy..."**_ With that, the hologram flickered once before it ended.

"Yeah, dad, I love you too and don't worry about me. I'll find the others, and take out any Mavrick that get in my way." he said as he walked over to the machine that held his PET. Looking it over, he pressed several switches he hoped were the right ones. The thing beeped four times before a boxy computer voice asked, "**Name and voice recognition please?**"

".. uh, Lan Hikari..."

Again the PET storage machin beeped as it loaded and said, "**Lan Hikari... Name and voice recognition match. Access granted. Secrurity system disabled.**"

Lan heard a lock click and the door as the mini vault door slid open. His PET sat there on a stand and had two wires connected to it, one was a charger and the other a computer data link. He reached inside and pulled out the small blue and white PET that was a little bigger than his hand. It looked a bit different compared to how he last saw one; it looked like a flip cell phone with a glass dome near the bottom. At the the top right side was the chip slot. Flipping it open was the screen and just under it was another slot, only it wasn't for battle chips of any kind he knew. If the dome lid was any indicator, whatever went there was shaped like a half bubble with a flat bottom. Lan disconnected both wires before turning the little device on. The screen glowed green as several loading files appeared.

"Megaman, can you hear me?" Lan asked impatiently. "You awake?"

The boy smirked when the sound of yawning answered him. "Lan? Hey, you're up! Finally!"

"Nice to see you too, bro."

The older Hikari nodded then smirked as he said, "It took you long enough, lazy bum"

Lan reached into the small vault again and pull out a small glassy blue and white half sphere the size of a large coin with a metal underside as he glared at the holographing image of his smiling blue Navi friend. "Be quiet. Humph... besides, it's not like I much of a choice." Lan smirked. "Anyway, good to see you, buddy, but I got a question." The boy looked down at the half sphere questioningly before holding it up to Megaman's camera. "What's this thing?"

The blue Navi took a single glance at what he was being shown and said, "It's a DAC; a Dementional Area Crystal. Think of it as a Dementional Area Generator, only _much_ smaller."

"No way! This little thing?" Lan looked closer at the crystal. It did look like a small peice of a Dementional Area Generator. "I thought the generators where huge? This thing is tiny."

The older twin shrugged. "You missed a few things while you were on ice." he stated. "I was awake while you were asleep the first few years because papa was pulling some major upgrades on me. During that time he was trying to find a way to compress the size of the Dementonal Area Generators down to a portable size. That crystal is the result. It's been tested so don't worry about that. We'll have a Dementional Area everywhere we go."

"Good, I never want to be caught off gaurd like last time again." Lan said as he slipped the crystal into its proper place in his PET.

Megaman looked at his brother with a serious expression. "So I take it you remember what happened then?"

Lan nodded as he rubbed his side where he felt a long scar running his abdomn. "It's a bit fuzzy, but yeah, I remember a little bit."

"And you've been brought up to speed about what's been going on the last few centuries" Megaman pressed. His twin sighed and nodded again, then he blinked as if he just realized something.

"Wait! What? What do you mean '_last few centuries_?"

The digital blue bomber gave an awkward half smile. _'So papa didn't tell him everything. This makes my job a bit harder.'_ he thought to himself before answering Lan."Yeah, you've... you've been in that block of ice for... almost three hundred years... At lest according to my internal clock you have. It's been exactly two hundred and eighty-nine years. You slept from October 27, 200X to today, July 10th, 22XX."

"My God." Lan leaned heavily against the nearest computer terminal when his legs started to fail him. It's been _that_ long. He was thirteen last time he checked, this made him... three hundred and two years old!

"C-come on now, Lan, I know it sounds pretty bad, I mean I feel the same way, but at lest we aren't alone. Chade, Protoman and the others might still be alive somewhere, right? We'll just go find them. It'll be okay, you'll see." Megaman consoled. If he could, he'd give his only brother a reassuring pat on the back.

Lan nodded quietly as he made his way out of the room and followed the directions given to him earlier by his father. Megaman had tried to strike up a conversation twice in vain. Lan was far too focused on what he was to reply.

The two came to the locker room in only a few minutes. Much like the lab, this covered in dust and a bit of mold. All the lockers that stretched across the room were badly rusted, paint chipped, had holes, and falling over if not already on the ground. The place was coming apart quite nicely.

Megaman looked around at the place through the camera on the PET while Lan started to seach for his locker. "Nice place..." he commented sarcasitically.

"No kidding." Lan muttered after he found his locker. After a few minutes of pulling at the rusty door he finally go it opened. Inside were two sealed air tight metal container boxes stacked on top of each other, one small, about the size of a lunch box, and the other was the size of a small suitcase.

Lan carefully pulled them out onto the floor and opened the bigger one first. Inside were two sets of clothes; a blue long shirt with a white strip across the chest and a fading white to orange short-sleeve, a black jacket, a pair of black fingerless gloves, a pair of pants and shorts, a belt, two pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear, and a pair of sneakers. He also found his headband and attachable roller blades. There was also an empty navy backpack not unlike the one he used to carry in there. Moving on to the smaller box he found all the Soul Chips he had ever collected. two Syncro Chips, a small box of Battle Chips, a PET and Battle Chip hip carrier, a folded map with coordinates to other NetSaver secret facilities, and some pictures of his friends and family with little messages writen on their backs.

Lan stood and dressed himself in the short sleeve shirt and shorts, belt, socks and shoes before neatly packing the rest of his clothes, pictures and map into his backpack and secured his skates on the bag. He clipped on the carrier on his belt before placing his PET and all his chips in it.

"Well bro, looks like it's just you and me for a while." Lan said as he tied his headband on.

Megaman chuckled slightly. "Not quite." The Hikari looked at the NetNavi questioningly. "One hundred and eighty-two years was a long wait. Lets just say I had someone to talk to when I was on standby mode."

Lan blinked blankly as Megaman grinned. The Navi placed two finger in his mouth and blew. A sharp whistle sounded loudly from the hand held device, bouncing off the locker room walls, through the open door, and out into the hallway. There was a moment of silence. Nothing was happening and nothing but him and Megaman made any noices.

Lan hadn't seen it coming until it finally hit him.

The boy was suddenly bowled over by a small yet very solid force. Lan gave a surprised shriek which quickly turned into one of disgust when a long wet tongue started to lap vigerously at his face. Megaman bursted into a fit of laughter.

"RARF ARF ARF!" came a happy, over-joyed barking.

When Lan finally managed to push his assailent off to sit up and look at who knocked him over, his face had intsantly split into a wide smile at the familiar face. "Rush!" Lan scooped the odd digital dog up and hugged tightly. He held the brown, red collared dog out at arms length to get a good look at him. He had the same long droopy ears, the same wide black eyes, the same everything! He hugged Rush again and vice versa. "I can't believe it's you, Rush! I missed ya boy!"

"Wuf wuf wuf!" the dog barked in agreement.

"Papa had Rush stay here to watch over us while you slept."

Grinning, Lan picked himself up off the ground and place Rush back on his feet. "That's cool, but I bet it was pretty boring. So, Rush, me and Megaman were about to go find the others, wanna come? We might see Meiru and Roll again."

The canine nodded, his tail wagging wildly at the possibiliy of seeing the two girls again after so long of guading the Hikari brothers.

And so the three left, Rush guiding them through the maze of hallways and ascending stairways. As they made their way up, Lan noticed that the passage way were beginning to look more like natural stone instead of carved blocks of concrete. Soon they came to a metal door with an electric security lock. Rush ran forward and typed in a pass code the door slid open after he hit a green enter botton. Rush pointed out the door and barked before walking on, Lan was right behind. The door, which was camouflaged to look like natural stone on the outside, closed again, completely blending in with the cave Lan now found himself in.

"Ya know, all this secret hide out stuff reminds me of all those spy movies I used to watch." Lan said as he begain to walk.

Megaman nodded. "Yeah, it'd be cool if it weren't so serious." Rush gave an agreeing bark. "So where do we go when we get out of his place?'"

The Hikari boy shrugged. "Hey, maybe we should start looking for nii-san first, then the other."

"... Lan, you do know we are the only Hikaris left the world, right?..."

The Net Op shook his head. "It's true, we have another brother, if only half. Papa told me so after I woke up." Lan then launched into the true full story of Megaman's Navi origins told to him by the hologram of their father. He didn't skip a thing and told his brother about the 'Project X' file stored away in the PET. By the time he finished, the blue Navi was in silent shock. "... Look for the file, papa said you'd have it."

From his side of the PET, Megaman quickly complied. He quickly opening and closing any and every file marked with his name and an X. Soon he came upon the desired data and opened it. He found everything on this Megaman X and his relationship to himself; their progress documents, data readings, schematics, algorithms, diograms, and thought and emotion processors. All of it was there, right down to smallest equations in their matrixes. His basic default programing, at lest before all the upgrades, and X's were all nearly identical! The only real difference between them was Magaman had the essence of his human self in him while X was purely data.

Megaman was in awe. "Wow... we really do have a... another brother."

"And we're gonna go meet him." Rush yipped in agreement with Lan.

Soon the trio came to the cave's end. Lan had to sheild his eyes when bright assulted them. When he could see properly again Lan found themselves near the foot of a mountain over looking a small forest. On the otherside he could see a very large city. "I guess that city is our first stop."

"I'm picking up feed from a navigational satellite, give me a sec and I'll find out where we are." Only a moment after, Megaman spoke again. "... Okay, the city in front of us is called Giga City."

Lan's face pinched in confusion. "Giga City... I don't think I've heard of it before."

"It must be one of the newer cities that was built over the years we were inactive."

The NetSaver gave a shrugging nod. "Well, lets go."

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**Hey everyone! It wonderful to see you and welcome to my fic. I've never writen a Megaman/ Rockman fic before so bare with me. Be helpful and give me reviews okay? I'll update when I do so ta ta for now!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hunter Navi**

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**"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! Mavrick Detected! Mavick Detected! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"**

The alarm wailed and red lights flashed along the halls of Mavrick Hunter HQ sending its inhabitance scrambling to their stations. Three particular hunters bursted into the contol room where three Navigators could usually be found, ready to be sent out.

"What's the problem?!" barked out the blond 'Red Devil' of the Mavrick Hunters, Zero.

Not looking up, the Navigator Alia's hands flew rapidly across her keyboard. "We've picked up Mavrick activity roughly 2. 32 kilometers outside the west sector's city boundries."

"That's the forest area between the city and the mountains." X provided.

From her seat, Pallette nodded saying, "That area was once used for mining before it went dry."

"I'm getting a reading on one fairly strong Mavrick and signals from roughly several dozen mechaniloids." Layer added.

Axl then made his way over to the door and called over his shoulder, "We got the location, so lets go, slowpokes! Mavricks aren't gonna get rid of themselves you know!"

Zero frowned at the teenage reploid. "Impatient little punk." he muttered but still followed quickly after, X grinned in amusemet behind his partners as the three headed to the teleporter room.

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Three bursts of light landed in a clearing in the forest a little over a hundred yards away from where the Mavricks were said to be. X did a quick scan of the surrounding area for any unseen enemies.

**Searching...**

**Scan Complete... Resultes...**

**Active Mavrick Signature(s): 1**

**ID: 192D84E**

**Name: Air Striker**

**Status: Threat**

**Type: Aerial/Flight Reploid **

**Class: B**

**Other Active Threats: 37**

**Type: Mavrick Mechaniloid Drone(s)**

**Active Non-Mavrick Signaure(s): 2**

**Type: 1 Biological Organism/Human Found... 1 Unknown Organism Found**

**Location: 113.04yds 14NW**

X panicked at the data his scanners detected. "We gotta move! The Mavrick is a B class and there're civilians near it!" The blue Hunter ran off in the direction his scanner pointed to. That was all that needed to be said for Zero and Axl to get going.

They were halfway there before their communicators beeped and Alia's voice echoed into their ears. "_X, Zero, Axl, you copy?_"

Zero touched the COM Link in his helmet. "We copy, go ahead, Alia."

"_I'm picking up a strange energy reading just ahead of you where the Mavrick signal is coming from! I can't identify it. It looks like it's about to expand or something. Approach with caution..._"

"Rodger!" Axl said. At the moment Axl cut his link, a huge burst of light skyrocketed up before it began to filter down in every direction, creating a giant dome roughly 100 yards all around.

The trio had been well within the area when energy sealed them in. Everything around them became a splash of everchanging color.

"Could the Mavrick have been expecting us?" Zero glanced at the hexagonal patterned wall around them. "Using civilians as bait to lure us into a trap." X opened his mouth to say something but was promptly silenced when a series of explosions erupted just beyond the trees.

"Whatever!" Axl shouted. "Hostages or no hostages, somethings going down and we're not the ones blowing things up to the high heavens! Lets go!"

The three pushed through some of the foliage to find a battle already going on.

In the air was the Mavrick called Air Striker. He was tall and was silver-grey and pale blue in color. Air Striker had half the appearence between a humanoid reploid and a bald eagle yet still retained an almost human face. He was obviously still in the process of upgrading himself into an anthropomorphic form. He wore light, flight aromr and had razor sharp, wickedly curved gold colored claws and talons. There were two rocket launchers under both of the large, ridged jet wings, duel thrusters on his back, and a pair of laser guns on both arms.

On the ground was his opponent. He was a short, odd looking reploid. He was as blue as X, had brown eyes and a tuft of spiky brown hair poking out from under his helmet, the rest of his face from the eyes down was covered by a mask with a single half stripe. He wore no armor with the exception of his helmet that held slight resemblence to Zero's, blue boots and golves with green gems, and pair of bright yellow shoulder pads. His body suit was two-toned; it was mostly a dark navy blue with light blue stripes that ran up his sides, around his shoulder pads, down his arms, two across his legs, and down diagnally to a divided red and yellow metal insignia at the center of his chest. He had the same crest for earpeices on his helmet. Finally, there was a pack of some sort on his back, it was also two toned.

Of the two fighters, X studied the small blue reploid a little more closely. There was something about him that seemed so familiar to X; it was more so the crests he sported rather than his person... of course that too sparked something at the back of his mind. X had seen that symbol from somewhere, he just couldn't figure out where or when.

"The damn fool, he's gonna get himself killed!" Zero growled in annoyance.

Axl nodded in total agreement. "What was he thinking?! Taking on a B class Mavrick without any armor?" Sure, Axl knew he could be cocky sometimes, and he was confident in his abilities, but he'd sit behind a desk doing paperwork for the rest of his life before he let himself be crazy enough to walk into any kind of fight without bodily protection.

Zero activated his Z-Saber and Axl turned off the safety to his blaster guns. Both were about to jump out of the cover the trees and bushes provided and into the fight when X's hands wrapped around their arms. "Wait!"

"What'cha stopping us for, X?" Zero ask impatiently, Axl was also giving the blue hunter a questioning look.

"Just look," X motioned to the fight. "I don't think he needs much help."

Turning, the two saw that X was right! Now that they were really watching the fight they could see the little blue reploid was actually holding his own. His right forearm had turned into a Buster Cannon, which, compaired to X's, was very simple looking and yet the rounds it shot were just as strong. He was blasting away two or three mechaniloids at a time, all the while ducking and dodging Air Striker's weapons and dives at him. When ever he attacked Striker he would jump up high into the air before letting loose a volley of blasts, and when he descended, he'd use the surrounding trees to rebound off of and opened fire again. The little reploid was always moving in an almost erratic way, he never stayed in a single spot for too long lest he get shot by lasers. His accuracy and action-reaction timing was good, if only a little sluggish. It was as if he was trying to get his body used to fast movements or something, but as the battle dragged on, it was beginning to move more properly.

Once the blue reploid had destroyed all the mechaniloids he and Striker went into a face off, his Buster Cannon trained on the Mavricks forehead. The little unknown reploid gave the rouge a frosty stare, there no doubt he was ready to destroy the Mavrick without hesitation, that much the trio knew.

Air Striker's unyeilding cruel yellow eyes stared down at his unexpected opponent in cold calculation. "... You're pretty good kid. Not many have been able to dodge and counter my attacks as well as you have." he complemented, but it was a hollow one.

"I've got a few years of experience." came the clipped reply.

A slow smirk played across the Mavrick's face at the child's spunk. "And to think, all you have is that cannon and no armor." Striker looked at the blue boy from where he hovered in the air. "Say kid, you're pretty strong, I bet you'd make a great Mavrick. It gives you a power rush and a sense of freedom like you've never felt before."

Though the hunters couldn't see his face completely, his eyes showed indignent annoyance. "Sorry pal, but I'm not into selling my soul for powers that are only skin deep." he bit out. "Besides, I got things to do, places to go, and people to see. I don't need my face plastered up on a Wanted Poster." The boy paused for a moment, then yelled, "And I'm also wondering why you three over there have just been sitting on your metal hides and not helping?!"

X's eyes widened. _'He noticed us?! When did he do that?'_

Zero, however, smirked as he stepped out into the open. "You must have a pretty advanced sensory programs to have found us so easily."

Axl grinned. "Yeah dude, that's kinda impressive."

X had also stepped out. "Sorry for being rude, it looked like you didn't need our help."

The boy gave a small one shouldered shrug, never once taking his eyes off the flying rouge. "I don't really, I just don't like it when people slink around in the shadows watching me. I get paranoid and distracted."

Upon sighting the three most powerful of all the Mavrick Hunters there, Air Striker seemed to have lost a bit of his nerve. He had heard many stories about them before from other Mavricks, most didn't end well for many of his bretheren. This was no longer the best place for him to be.

"You know, even if you tried to run, you wouldn't get passed the wall." All atenttion was drawn back to the boy who's eyes alone could tell you he was smirking rather smugly. They were all curious about what he just said. As if reading their thoughts, he coninued, "Everything within a hundred yards around us has been seal in. It takes an extrem amount of energy to pierce the wall around this area, something you don't have. Of course I can always let it down, but that's not gonna happen. So that means the only way you're getting out is through a trash can."

Striker snarled angrily. "Why you- I'll KILL YOU!" he screeched and launched two rockets at the place where the boy stood. The three hunters ran to stop the Mavrick's attack, but it was too late. The projectiles hit and the resulting explosion shook the ground around them.

Anger surged through the hunters for some reason. They hadn't even known the poor guy, but somehow it almost felt like being forced to watch a human die.

Axl was the first to react as he jumped up to Striker's level and hovered there. The young hunter let loose a hail of shots at the rouge, but Striker managed to dodge most of Axl's attack because of his swift aerial maneuverability. Striker shot a wave of lasers at the next-gen reploid who couldn't move out of the way fast enough. Axl slammed on the ground heavily, but the rouge wasn't done with the red haired hunter as he launched two missiles after him. The rookie hunter's blue eyes widened when he saw the deadly incoming explosives.

A blur of red and blond darted forward and grabbed Axl seconds before rockets impacted. Axl let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks for the save, Z." He shot Zero an appreciating grin.

The blond rolled his eyes, throwing back a small frown. "Just watch yourself next time." was all he said before went to fight, Axl not far behind.

X had been letting out one shot after another in quick succession. The blue bomber growled in frustration as Air Striker moved hight into the sky and out of range once again. X found it annoying but he just had to wait now. He had long since saw a pattern in the Mavrick style. First he would fly high up out of his range, then launched a few missiles, and if he missed he would swoop in and sweep the area with laser fire, but doing this brought his closer back to X, if only a little, and then do it all over again, somethimes preforming a random diving slash using his claws. These were the only times X could get in a shot or two.

Air Striker laughed as he stared down at X. "You know, somehow I thought I'd have a harder time against you human-loving hunters." he said, launching three missiles.

X readied to dash outside of the blast radius, but when the flying bombs made it halfway between him and Striker, Zero appeared and sliced them to peices in mere seconds. While still in the air Zero preformed a double jump, getting in closer and swung his saber in a wide arch, the energy blade enlongened to twice its normal length for a moment.

Striker quickly urged himself into a backward thrust to dogde. He may have escaped death via Z-saber, but not cleanly. The Mavrick now sported a long diagnal slash across his chest. He quickly scrambled higher into the air until he was well above the tree tops, that damnable wall that little reploid he destroyed earlier was still up, preventing any hasty retreats. The grey rouge held his sparking and cracking wound. Striker swore venomously when pain shot through him.

The Mavrick was distracted he didn't notice two large boomarang-like weapons speeding towards him until he heard sharp metal slice away both of his wings. Striker let out a surprise cry when he fell through the leaves and smacked into the ground.

The hunters had seen what happened and watched the Mavrick fall wondering where the attack had come from. The answer came almost immediately as a blue body fell from the trees bewteen them and Air Striker, landing in a crouch. It was that reploid

"You're alive!" Axl grinned in surprise at the smaller reploid's back.

"How?" X qestioned.

"It takes more than a few missiles to kill me." came the vague answer.

Zero smirked. The kid really was good and he foud himself liking him. His smirk was short lived when he saw Air Striker pull himself back up to his feet.

"I... refuse to lose to the likes.. of you..." he sneered breathily to the unknown child.

"You're annoying." was his retort as he rolled his eyes.

"... I... will.. destroy you..."

"Right... Tell me something," The young fighter said to the hunters, his disapproving frown at the Mavrick was covered by his mask . "When you haul these Mavricks in, how do you take them?"

It was X who answered before the Zero or Axl could. "We prefer them live but most times they're usually too stubborn and fight us to the death."

Sighing the reploid said, "I thought that was the case. Well, I guess I'll make your job easier." He held his right arm out and yelled, "Long Sword! Download!" His forearm glowed bright blue before it broke apart, reconfigured, and then reassembled into a different shape. A long five foot energy blade suddenly materiaized at the place where his fingers would have been before the hunters' surprised eyes. The young fighter dashed forward.

Air Striker shot his lasers fiercely at the kid, but he just kept running onward, side-stepping and dodging until the boy came within melee striking range. The blue child warrior swinged his blade as he passed by, he stopped only a few feet away. Air Striker had stopped fireing and simply stood stock still. There was a tense moment of silence before the kid stood up strait, his arm morphing back to its regular unarmed state. Striker took a sharp gasp as intense pain laced through his entire being. His arms suddenly dropped off him like rocks as his body slid off his legs. Metal, wire, and everything else had been cut cleanly through.

The hunters could only watch in awe. It had happened so fast a regular person, human or reploid, wouldn't have been able to see it, but they saw it all. What looked like one swing was infact three! Two slicing off both Air Striker's arms and one taking out both legs.

The giant dome wall around them flashed before it begain to break apart and dissolve away. As if in response, the boy's body glowed his helmet, crest, gloves, boots, shoulder pads, and the pack on his back lifted off him before breaking apart. The glow also removed itself from his person and gathered in front of him, coming together and turning into a small blue and white device which fell into is awaiting gloved hand.

X, Zero, and Axl couldn't help but to stare in shock, becoming a little slack-jawed at the new revelation that stood in front of them. Who they previously believed was a young reploid, was in fact a young human! He looked thirteen or fourteen at most and wore a white and orange t-shirt, a pair of shorts, sneakers, and a light blue headband that also bore his crest around his head. He stood there silently, his eyes slightly glazed as if remembering something.

The boy turned to them then snickered at their expressions. "If your mouths were open a little wider, birds could roost in them."

Their mouths clamped shut before their COM Links beeped. "_X, Zero, Axl?! Anyone?! Please respond!_" Alia's panicked voice rung shrilly as she pleaded.

"Yeah, we hear you..." Zero spoke after getting over being stunned.

"_Oh than God! Zero, your transmission signals went dead for a while there after that weird energy expansion, we couldn't reach you. What happened?!_"

This time X answered. "We'll debreif you when we get back to HQ. For now send a transport. The Mavrick is alive but he's been..." X looked down at Air Striker, he almost felt sorry for it. "... Rendered incapacitated. His injuries may be near critical."

"_Acknowledged. A Mavrick transport will arrive at your location at 0030 minutes._" With that the COM Link filled with static.

X glanced back at the boy to find him giving X an unreadable look. "Is there something wrong?" he asked. The boy walked up to X, eyes scanning the reploid from head to toe, before giving the hunter a walk around. When he came back around, he crouched and tilted his head to the side, looking at X from various angles.

Zero watched all this curiously from the corner of his eye, wondering what the boy found so interesting about his long time best friend and partner. Axl too raised an eyebrow at the boy's behavoir.

"Nothings wrong, but tell me, what's your name?" he asked.

The reploid blinked before he answered, "I'm called X." The boy looked at him impatiently, as if pressing for more. "... Megaman X, but please, just 'X' will do."

"I thought it was you." The brunette smiled as he straitened up. "Well, X, this saves me a lot of time. We were just about to go looking or you, but what do you know, you came to us."

"Y-you were?"

"That's right," he said with a grin. "But I gotta ask first, the guy who created you, his name wouldn't really happen to be Thomas Hikari, would it?"

X was surprised by the boy's knowledge of his creator. He nodded. The boy gave a small cheer.

Zero frowned as he stepped closer to his friend. "Hey kid, how do you know who X's creator was?"

That kind of infomation wasn't supposed to be public knowledge. Dr. Cain, rest his soul, had been very tight lipped and strict about not telling who his and X's makers were, and for good reason too. It could easily cause far too many problems. And big ones at that. For X, the poor guy wouldn't be able to step outside HQ without getting mobbed by the media and fanatic quack scientists. For Zero, well... let's just say people would stops seeing him in the good light. That type of information was on a need-to-know basis and only X, Zero, and Commander Sigma needed to know. Period!

It made Zero wonder just how the kid knew. This boy had just proven he could be a formitable and extremly lethal opponent in a fight. If he's been after X, then there's no telling what the brat could do. If he attacked them they wouldn't be able to counter-attack, it was forbidden after all. All they would be able to do was merely dodge and defend themselves. It was times like this Zero wished he didn't have the Three Laws of Robotics in his head.

They really sucked sometimes.

"Out with it squirt."

Said boy gave Zero an annoyed look. "First off, Blondie, my name isn't 'Kid' or 'Squirt' or whatever, it's Lan, Lan Hikari." he said matter-of-factly. "And second, Thomas Hikari was my grandpa."

And so, for the third time that day the boy, Lan, surprised the trio of S-ranked hunters.

* * *

**Hey everyone! It's good to see ya. Thanks for the reviews, I honestly hadn't expected that many in one chapter. Well any way, I'll update as soon as I can. Bye bye for now!**


	3. NOT AN UPDATE!

Dear Readers,

This is an Author's Note, not a new chapter! I know all my readers of this fic are waiting and hoping for an update, sorry to say, I'm not updating. However, I'm not giving up on this fic! After rereading it for myself I have decided to temporary take it down so I can recycle it. I know a lot of you think it's a cool fic, but I personally think its crappy. **Don't flame me yet! I haven't told you guys my plans! Anyway, so in order to "un-crap-ify" my fic, I'm doing a complete overhaul and rewrite it to be better with correct sentence structure, grammar, and maybe give it a new title now that I actually have a Spell Check. Actually, several stories are in need of refurbishing so it might take a while. But seriously, the next time you see it will be better! Promise! **

**Sincerely,**

**Gatecrasher12**


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